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Melbourne / Friday 31 July 2015
Design Speaks:
Housing Futures
2015 Program
A forum about new trajectories
in residential architecture
Major
Partner
Venue
Partner
Supporting
Partners
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A DIA endorsed CPD
event for DIA members
Program
Organizer
Design Speaks: Housing Futures
Melbourne / Friday 31 July 2015
01
Program
The inaugural Housing Futures forum will
speculate on residential architecture across
all scales, locations and types through three
broad themes – the individual family home,
apartment living, and future directions in aged,
multigenerational and student housing.
Venue:
Clemenger BBDO Auditorium,
NGV International
180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Date:
Friday 31 July 2015
8.45 am
Attendee arrival
9.00 am
Welcome from Katelin Butler, Editor,
Houses magazine
9.15 am
KEYNOTE ADDRESS 1
Kerstin Thompson – “What lessons,
if any, does the bespoke, one-off
house offer for housing futures?”
Principal, Kerstin Thompson
Architects (Melbourne)
10.00 am
KEYNOTE ADDRESS 2
Paul Donegan – “City limits: why
Australia’s cities are broken and how
we can fix them”
Fellow, Grattan Institute (Melbourne)
10.45 am
Morning tea
11.15 am
KEYNOTE ADDRESS 3
Philip Thalis – “Urban housing:
architecture’s role in making
our cities sustainable, equitable
and liveable”
Founding Principal, Hill Thalis
Architecture + Urban Projects (Sydney)
12.00 pm
MODERATED PANEL DISCUSSION 1
Panellists:
Paul Donegan (Fellow, Grattan
Institute), Philip Thalis (Founding
Principal, Hill Thalis Architecture
+ Urban Projects), Eli Giannini
(Director, MGS Architects) and Marcus
Foth (Founder and Director, Urban
The symposium will feature international and
local keynote speakers, interwoven with panel
discussions where audience participation is
encouraged. The Housing Futures forum is
co-located with the highly anticipated
2015 Houses Awards announcement.
Informatics Research Lab; Professor
in Interactive and Visual Design in the
School of Design, Creative Industries
Faculty at QUT)
1.00 pm
Lunch break
2.15pm
KEYNOTE ADDRESS 4
Charles Renfro – “Housing shapes the
way we live and the cities we inhabit”
Partner, Diller Scofidio + Renfro
(New York City)
3.00 pm
MODERATED PANEL DISCUSSION 2
Panellists:
Charles Renfro (Partner, Diller
Scofidio + Renfro), Kerstin Thompson
(Principal, Kerstin Thompson
Architects), Shelley Penn (Director,
Shelley Penn Architect; Chairperson,
National Capital Authority; Past
National President of the Australian
Institute of Architects) and Ben
Hewett (Director, Strategic Services
NSW GAO; Adjunct Professor of
Architecture at UTS)
4.00 pm
Closing comments from Cameron
Bruhn, Editorial Director, Architecture
Media
4.10 pm
Closing drinks
5.00 pm
Event closes
Design Speaks: 2015
Design Speaks: Housing Futures
Melbourne / Friday 31 July 2015
02
Keynote Addresses
“WHAT LESSONS, IF ANY, DOES THE BESPOKE,
ONE-OFF HOUSE OFFER FOR HOUSING FUTURES?”
Presented by Kerstin Thompson, Principal,
Kerstin Thompson Architects (Melbourne)
Kerstin Thompson will draw on the housing work
of Kerstin Thompson Architects to demonstrate
how the practice of residential architecture
is an opportunity to develop new typologies
responsive to the living preferences, and social
and environmental imperatives of today. While
there will always be a place for the architect
as ensemblier, especially for the one-off home,
Kerstin will argue that the architecture of the
house is most instrumental at the level of typology
as an envelope for living and in the establishment
of relationships with place, neighbours and
the street.
“CITY LIMITS: WHY AUSTRALIA’S CITIES ARE BROKEN
AND HOW WE CAN FIX THEM”
Presented by Paul Donegan, Fellow,
Grattan Institute (Melbourne)
The divide between where people live and
work in Australian cities is growing. Most new
jobs are being created close to city centres,
while most population growth occurs in the
outer suburbs. Relatively few new homes are
being built in established suburbs, despite
strong demand. The costs of this divide include
heavy traffic congestion, long commute times
and big compromises in family and social life.
Paul Donegan will investigate how changes to
government regulations and tax settings are a
necessary first step to bridging this divide, and
argue that the architecture profession has a
critical role to play in making change a reality.
“URBAN HOUSING: ARCHITECTURE’S ROLE IN
MAKING OUR CITIES SUSTAINABLE, EQUITABLE
AND LIVEABLE”
Presented by Philip Thalis, Founding Principal, Hill
Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects (Sydney)
If the future of humankind is increasingly urban,
then the future of inhabitation is likely to be
expanded urban housing. Reprising housing
models that extend at least as far back as
the Romans, the apartment building will out
of necessity become the dominant form of a
new range of dwelling choices. Philip Thalis will
investigate contradictions inherent to the form
of the city and its housing – between design
and economy, between quantities and qualities,
between speculation and durability. He will
explore how architecture’s embrace of such
issues will help determine the extent to which our
cities are sustainable, equitable and liveable.
“HOUSING SHAPES THE WAY WE LIVE AND THE
CITIES WE INHABIT”
Presented by Charles Renfro, Partner, Diller
Scofidio + Renfro, New York City, USA
Precis to come.
Design Speaks: 2015
Design Speaks: Housing Futures
Melbourne / Friday 31 July 2015
03
Keynote Speakers
CHARLES RENFRO
Diller Scofidio + Renfro (New York City)
Charles Renfro is a partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), a
115-person interdisciplinary design studio that integrates architecture,
the performing arts and the visual arts. Together with Elizabeth Diller
and Ricardo Scofidio, he is intimately involved in the design of each of
the studio’s projects.
His work with DS+R has been exhibited worldwide at museums and
institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney
Museum of American Art in New York, the Netherlands Architecture
Institute, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the Centre
Pompidou in France. Charles is a contributing editor of Document
Journal and his writing has been published in Bomb, OUT and A+U
Magazine. He is a board member of Spaceworks and Storefront for
Art and Architecture, where he has been president of the board since
2011. In 2012, Charles was honored as a Rice University Distinguished
Alumnus, making him one of the youngest alumni to ever receive this
prestigious award. He is a recipient of the 2015 Texas Medal of the
Arts Awards.
KERSTIN THOMPSON
Kerstin Thompson Architects (Melbourne)
Kerstin Thompson is principal of Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA), a
Melbourne-based architecture, landscape and urban design practice
with projects in Australia and New Zealand. Kerstin is also Professor
of Design in Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington in New
Zealand, and Adjunct Professor at RMIT and Monash Universities in
Melbourne. Her work has received numerous awards and local and
international recognition through publication and exhibition. She
has been a member of the Federal Government’s Built Environment
Industry Innovation Council Advisory Committee, was the creative
director for the 2005 RAIA National Conference and a creative director
for Australia’s 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition. She is
currently on the Office of the Victorian Government Architect’s Design
Review Panel.
Design Speaks: 2015
Design Speaks: Housing Futures
Melbourne / Friday 31 July 2015
04
Keynote Speakers
PHILIP THALIS
Founding Principal, Hill Thalis (Sydney)
Philip Thalis is a registered architect and principal of Hill Thalis
Architecture + Urban Projects. Recognized for its design skills and
independent standpoint, the practice has a core of twelve people plus
collaborators, undertaking a diverse range of project types and sizes,
balancing public and private clients.
Philip’s advice and expertise have regularly been sought by government
and private clients, and he is a past appointee to the Heritage Council
of NSW and to the Urban Design Advisory Committee reporting to the
Minister for Planning. He served for nine years as Trustee of the Historic
Houses Trust of NSW. Philip has also sat on a number of design review
panels and awards juries.
Philip actively promotes the culture of architecture and city making,
combining practice with teaching, research, conference papers and
publication, public lectures, architectural criticism and expert opinion.
He has lectured at universities nationally and internationally, with a
particular research focus on the history of Sydney’s architecture and
urban development, and the architecture of the city more generally.
PAUL DONEGAN
Fellow, Grattan Institute (Melbourne)
Paul Donegan has helped governments tackle some of Australia’s
biggest social and economic challenges – as a Commonwealth and
state public servant, ministerial adviser, and at the Grattan Institute.
Before joining the Grattan Institute, Paul worked at the Department of
Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Victorian Premier’s department, and as
the disability adviser to the responsible Commonwealth minister at the
introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Paul is the co-author of the book City Limits: why Australia’s cities
are broken and how we can fix them, published in 2015 by Melbourne
University Press.
Design Speaks: 2015
05
Design Speaks: Housing Futures
Melbourne / Friday 31 July 2015
05
Panellists
ELI GIANNINI
Director, MGS Architects (Melbourne)
Eli Giannini is director of MGS Architects. Over the past twenty-five
years Eli has been responsible for the design direction at MGS and
winning numerous industry awards for the practice, including the
Australian Institute of Architects 2013 Frederick Romberg Award for
Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing, for the McIntyre Drive
Social Housing Project, Altona.
Eli brings to her work tenacity and passion for the craft of design, with
a special interest in delivering housing within the social and affordable
sectors of the industry and developing architectural typologies into
project-specific responses. She has contributed to the profession
as an RAIA national councillor and chapter president, and as chair of
the Victorian Chapter Awards Task Force, the honours committee and
the 2007 National Conference organizing committee. In 2008 she was
made a Lifetime Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects.
MARCUS FOTH
Founder and Director, Urban Informatics Research Lab; Professor
in Interactive and Visual Design in the School of Design, Creative
Industries Faculty at QUT (Brisbane)
Marcus Foth is founder and director of the Urban Informatics
Research Lab, and Professor in Interactive and Visual Design in
the School of Design, Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland
University of Technology.
Marcus’s research focuses on the relationships between people, place
and technology. He leads a cross-disciplinary team that develops
practical approaches to complex urban problems. He adopts human–
computer interaction and design methodologies to build engagement
around emerging issues facing our cities.
Marcus has received more than $4 million in national competitive
grants and industry funding. He received a Queensland Young Tall
Poppy Science Award 2013, and was inducted by the planning, design
and development website Planetizen to its list of the world’s top
twenty-five leading thinkers and innovators in urban planning
and technology.
Design Speaks: 2015
Design Speaks: Housing Futures
Melbourne / Friday 31 July 2015
06
Panellists
SHELLEY PENN
Director, Shelley Penn Architect; Chairperson, National Capital
Authority; Past National President of the Australian Institute of
Architects (Melbourne)
Shelley Penn is a Melbourne-based architect whose work includes
strategic advice to the public and private sectors on achieving
high-quality architectural and urban design for public places. Her
practice has centred on residential projects.
Since 2000, Shelley has also focused on advancing public outcomes
in the built environment through various roles within state, local and
federal government, and through work with the private sector. She
has held a number of significant positions, including 2012 National
President of the Australian Institute of Architects, the inaugural
Associate Victorian Government Architect from 2006 to 2010, deputy
chair of the Heritage Council of Victoria from 2008 to 2012 and Chair
of the National Capital Authority.
Shelley was named one of the Australian Financial Review/Westpac’s
“100 Women of Influence” in 2014.
BEN HEWETT
Director, Strategic Services NSW GAO; Adjunct Professor of
Architecture at UTS (Sydney)
Ben Hewett is the Director for Strategic Services in the NSW
Government Architect’s Office. In this role Ben leads the Office’s
strategic function, providing design advice across government
and to Urban Growth NSW.
Ben was the inaugural South Australian Government Architect,
operating in the role from 2010 to 2014. Concurrently, Ben was
executive director of the Office for Design and Architecture SA, which
implemented South Australia’s highly regarded Design Review Program.
Prior to this, Ben was executive director of the Integrated Design
Commission, and director of “5000+, an Integrated Design Strategy
for inner Adelaide.” Led by the Commission, 5000+ was a national pilot
project that saw collaboration between three tiers of government and
industry and academia representatives, to develop a design-based
vision for Adelaide.
Design Speaks: 2015
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